EOOT-PBUNING OF PEUIT TREES 59 



Bon ChrStien) had never produced more than one pea/r 

 annually ; the other upon a north wall had never given 

 a single pear. I could get no aid from anyone what to 

 do with those trees, and no book then accessible helped 

 me. I reflected on the natural habit of the pear tree, 

 and coming to the conclusion that the cause of barren- 

 ness was exuberance of roots, I resolved to cut them. 

 Before the leaves had fallen, a friend sent me " The 

 Retired Gardener," an old book translated from the 

 French. In it I, found an account of some experiments 

 made in England which fortified me in the resolution 

 I had taken. The first year the Summer Bon Ohr6tien ^ 

 produced nine fruit. I pruned the roots more closely, 

 and this year (1859), in spite of the ungenial spring, I 

 saved fifty-niae pears. The other tree yielded thirty- 

 six, but of so vile a quality that I have re-grafted the 

 tree. A large plum treated in the same way produced 

 the season after being root-pruned 2,000 fruit.' 



It wUl not, perhaps, be out of place here to 

 enumerate a few of the advantages of systematic root- 

 pruning and removing or lifting of pear, apple, and 

 plum trees, and of growing them as pyramidal trees 

 and bushes. 



Firstly. Their eligibility for small gardens, even 

 the smallest. 



Secondly. The facility of thinning the blossom- 

 buds, and in some varieties, such as Gansel's Bergamot 



> This is one of our oldest varieties, and remarkable for being a, 

 very shy bearer. 



